From Indi-pop to playback singing Shaan has come a long way, with several hits to his credit

Shaan: Many memorable tunes

IT WAS not so long ago when we saw the brother-sister duo Shaan and Sagarika making waves on the music scene. They reminded us of the 1980s brother-sister pair Zoheb and Nazia Hassan from Pakistan. Remember their song "Disco Diwane..aha... "? Many jived to its peppy beat. Shaan and Sagarika's "Aisa Hota Hai" from their album "Naujawan" too became quite popular. And to date, they are perhaps the only brother-sister singing team in the country.

Playback singing

While his sister cut one or two solo albums and then settled for marriage and motherhood, Shaan jumped on the Bollywood music bandwagon when he took to playback singing in a big way. Beginning his innings with the chartbuster "Musu Musu" from the film Pyar Mein Kabhi Kabhi, he has sung many memorable scores. "I think I have been lucky from the beginning. I did not have to struggle much to be where I am," says the crooner. With a music-loving mother and lyricist-composer father Manas Mukherjee, Shantanu a.k.a Shaan has a voice to be proud of.

Be it the soft non-filmi number "Tanha Dil" or "In Panchion Ko Dekh Kar" from Koi... Mil Gaya, the peppy "Koi Kahen" from Dil Chahta Hai, the romantic "Kuch To Hua Hai" from Kal Ho Na Ho, the boyish "Ladki Kyun" from Hum Tum or "Mein Aisa Kyun Hun" from Lakshya, he has given us variety, excellence and consistency in contemporary Hindi popular music. Over a short span of time.

"However peppy a song is, you can be confident of singing it well only if you are trained in classical music," says Shaan. A disciple of Ghulam Mustafa Khan, he says, due to lack of time, he does his `riyaaz' mostly in the evenings. "And during my free time, I like to listen to Stevie Wonder and my guru's recorded alaap."

Album with Sagarika

Talking of his forthcoming non-filmi projects, he names a Bengali album he plans to cut with Sagarika. "All the songs were written by my father. It is a tribute to our dad. Hopefully, it should come out during Durga Puja, this year," says Shaan. Shooting three episodes of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa a day to studio-hopping for playback singing, he says he gets little time with his wife and two-year-old son Soham. "But I can look at them whenever I want to," he says, pulling out snaps of his family from his wallet. He never forgets to smile. "It keeps the situation under control."